Police have been forced to lob teargas canisters to disperse rioters who wanted to stop the ongoing Jubilee nominations for Huruma ward, Uasin Gishu County.
The seat fell vacant following the death of MCA Peter Kiiru who succumbed to Covid-19 in October last year.
They were angered when they were allegedly denied a chance to vote over missing names in the register. The Jubilee officials said the register was sourced from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).
The rioters dismissed the party nomination as a sham, saying the widespread irregularities might compromise the nominations' credibility and outcome.
Hussein Kassim said he was denied a chance to vote because his name was missing in the register, despite being a voter in the ward.
“At the MV Patel polling station, for instance, there were more than 19,000 registered voters as per the IEBC register but I was shocked to find my name missing. There is one voter by the name Hussein who happens to be a woman,” Kassim said.
He added that he was dejected since he was denied the chance to vote just like thousands of others who were turned away.
“Already the nomination is compromised. How can you tell a voter their name is missing from the list to come with a voters' card? Voters can be imported from elsewhere and given voting cards sourced from scammers,” he claimed.
Lucy Wangari, Lucya Ngendo and Francis Njoroge are battling for the party ticket ahead of the upcoming March by-election.
But MV Patel Jubilee Presiding officer Caroline Jepkoech dismissed the allegations, saying the exercise was going on well.
“We are witnessing some form of incitement that resulted to the chaos. The register we use for nomination was sourced from the IEBC thus issues of voters missing on the list should not arise,” she said.
Jepkoech said there was very low voter turn-out but the exercise will still end at 7pm.
There were no queues at several poling stations checked by the Standard team.
